


Balance

by Kassius



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Aliens, F/F, F/M, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Slow Burn, Smut Eventually, idk man, things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 05:00:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13380696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kassius/pseuds/Kassius
Summary: Zarra, daughter of Snoke, is called back to him.To teach his newest apprentice, Kylo Ren.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Trying out a new character and a new fandom.

A girl with hair as white as a star, glittering in the light with hues of blues and pinks, hides behind her mother, clutching the scratchy skirt tightly.

A man stands in their home. Taller than the ceilings, kneeling and looking at her with ice blue eyes. She doesn’t like him.

“Zarra, this is Lord Snoke. Your father.” Her mother kneels down, gently urging the little girl forward with a hand on her back. “Say hello dear.”

“H-hello.” Her voice is small, smaller than she is. Snoke, her father, smiles but it scares Zarra, makes her feel sick. He feels _wrong_.

“Hello, my dear daughter. You have some special abilities, don’t you? Made things float and fly across the room.” Zarra wants to step back behind her mother, shoulders tense and crawling up to her ears, but her mothers hand stiffens and pushes back.

The girl nods, fingers sore in her mothers skirt. Snoke grins and smoothes out his robes. “Good, good. I’m going to teach you how to use these unique powers of yours.” His face twists into a smaller smile but this one makes Zarra feel cold.

She cries in her bed on the ship that Snoke takes her away on.

 

Zarra cut her hair when Snoke said it was beautiful long.

She trains until she falls, then gets up and meditates and trains her mind. Snoke applauds her hard work, laughing and grinning and proud of his _daughter_ for her stubbornness and tenacity.

But she isn’t doing it for him. She’s heard him call her his daughter in the same way one would refer to a beloved weapon. A tool.

She learns how to pilot from their numerous pilots. How to use and maintain a blaster from their guards. How to pickpocket from a bastard smuggler on Coruscant, who stole not only her money, but also her first kiss.

She learnt how deadly a woman can be from a dancer on Nal Hutta. How to utilise her curves and fluttering eyelashes to get information.

Zarra learns how to probe minds from Snoke, screaming during her lessons until her throat is raw. She learns how to detect and deflect the attempts just as fast.

Snoke could not be more proud.

 

At nearly 40 standard galactic years old, Zarra dreams of a forest. It’s dark and quiet, night bugs chirping in the underbrush as the night predators chase and sniff out prey. She feels calm here. Walking a path she’s made, gazing at the trees that move gently in the cool breeze.

She almost always sees a bright ray of light, sunlight, spearing its way through the canopy ahead. She never gets close.

 

At 63 years, she is meditating and back in the forest. She gets close enough to see that the sunlight, hurting her eyes with the intensity, feeling as if it might burn her skin, it has a flower blooming within. It’s bright and colourful petals happily soaking the light.

 

At nearly 70 Zarra stands on the edge of the sunlight, a patch barely big enough to contain her. The flower has sprouted from a dead tree stump, and a bird flitters over to land on a mangled branch. It barely supports the weight. It’s small, black with red shoulders.

The bird sings, and tension leaves the woman like shedding clothing.

She steals a shuttle that night and leaves for a destination she doesn’t know the name of.

She seeks that forest.


	2. Chapter 2

Supreme Leader Snoke watches on his many viewing screens as Kylo Ren, his newest apprentice, and General Armitage Hux, fight over something **again.**

He feels like sighing. His apprentice is strong, but his temper, his _instability,_ is his weakness. And Snoke has exhausted his mind for solutions. He has grown too old to teach, but he will not admit it to Ren. The boy needs a guiding hand.

“Sir,” one of the operators at the terminals, his chosen confidants, calls his attention and Snoke barely turns his head in the direction. “We’ve found it.”

The old darksider could almost laugh. Finally.

He looks to the screen following Ren through his tantrum.  “Get General Hux and Ren here. Immediately.”

“Yes sir.”

He’s found Ren a teacher.

 

_“You are to go to an unnamed planet in the inner most rim. There you’ll find a powerful relic of the Dark Side. Bring it back here.”_

_“Of course, Supreme Leader.”_

Lieutenant ML-9538 leads her squad through the forest.

It’s beautiful, they all agree, marching through the twilight expanse created by the thick canopy pierced by sunlight. There are bugs that chirp and birds that sing, flowers blooming and a cool breeze.

They quickly see what looks like a temple in the distance, carved into the side of a cliff. Closer they hear wind chimes tinkle gently and soothingly in the breeze, can see ropes with laundry, and leather drying on racks. It’s all so _domestic_.

The Stormtroopers nearly jump out of their skin when someone steps out of the uncovered entry arch. “Welcome.” Some raise their blasters, but most of the squad don’t move and ML-9538 watches the woman warily.

She sighs and gestures to the clearing of grass, urging the troopers to sit down. “Please, you’re my guests. Get comfortable, I’ll get you some juice and snacks.”

ML-9538 looks at her troops and they look back. “This is weird.”

 

The woman returns with a platter of juice, it’s a light pinky-purple and ML-9538 doesn’t trust it. She trusts the woman even less when she brings out plates of cut up fruit and bread and meat.

They float about her as she walks down the stairs and sits on the cool grass with the troopers, the plates settling amongst the squad.

“So who is the leader here?”

“I am. Supreme Leader-”

“What’s your name?”

ML-9538 starts at the question, asked by the woman with a long pristine white braid over her shoulder and pale blue eyes. Why would she care what a Stormtroopers name is?

“I care. That’s all you need to know.”

The nervous energy amongst the group stops at that and all heads turn to the woman. ML-9538 is the one to speak, fingers shaking in her gloves.

“You’re a force user.”

The woman looks up from assembling her stack of fruit, meats and bread, blinking plainly at the other woman in white armour. “I am.”

The troopers look around, understanding dawning. ML-9538 straightens her shoulders and back. “I need you to come with us. Peacefully.”

“Why?” The woman bites into her delicious looking assembly of food.

“We were sent here to retrieve a powerful Force relic by order of Supreme Leader Snoke. And you-”

The lieutenant nearly jumps at the lack of noise in the forest, even her squad shuffles to look around. But ML-9538 can’t take her eyes of the fair woman, knees turning to jelly when those eyes settle on her intently.

“Snoke?”

“Y-yes, ma’am. Supreme Leader of the First O-order.”

She resumes chewing slowly, swallowing after a moment and cautiously a bird begins to sing again, drawing the attention of the woman. It’s small, black with red shoulders. Blue eyes return to ML-9538 and the woman frowns.

“What’s your name?”

Again with the name, but the trooper answers this time. “ML-9538, ma’am.”

“That’s not a name.”

“It’s the only one I know.”

The woman hums to herself, repeating the letters M and L to herself for a few minutes.

“Mel, that’s your name now.” She stands after that declaration, dusting off her leather pants and stretching. “I’ll go get my things, and then we can go to my father.”

She re-enters the temple and ML-9538, _Mel_ , hears her squad swear. “Father?! Did she just refer to Supreme Leader as **_father?!_** ”

“I did, because he is.” The woman steps down from the temple, pulling her laundry from the line and hefting it into a pack that floats along behind her. “Don’t be too surprised. He wanted an apprentice that was powerful in the Force, and decided that his best chance would be one that came from him.”

She opens her arms and shrugs. “Let’s go, Mel and… everyone else.”

 

On the ship, Zarra introduces herself, and makes all the troopers and flight staff create names for themselves, refusing to call anyone by a _number_.

She refuses to go to a room of her own, preferring to settle in the common bunk room.

She sees their fears, punishment at the hands of Snoke and their General.

Zarra won’t let that happen.

At their approach, she frowns at the massive ships, unsurprised and unimpressed by the show of power.

“Tell them Snoke had better be waiting for me.”

“Ma’am?”

“If he isn’t there in the bay waiting to greet me, I’m claiming this ship and its crew as mine.” She’s done it before, and she’ll happily do it again.

Landing, Zarra watches as a squad of Stormtroopers strut to the ship and sighs.

People stare as they walk past. She’s in some brightly coloured leathers, badly sewn together. She thinks she looks like a scavenger from a children’s care centre, sticking all their colourful textiles to herself.

The thought makes her laugh in the elevator to Snoke.

To his _throne room_.

Zarra nearly snorts at that, if it weren’t for the doors opening and there he is, Supreme Leader Snoke.

The fair woman sighs, walking out of the elevator and leaving the significantly more pleasant company behind.

A man is kneeling between Zarra and Snoke and she raises an eyebrow at him before stopping next to him, deciding he had the right idea at remaining at a distance from the old, shrivelled creature.

“Ahh, there you are. It’s been so long, my dear.”

She hums, looking around the room, far more dramatically than she would; to show she’s rather uninterested in being here.

But her attention never left the man in black next to her. He has a mask on, leather and cloth covering everything else.

She could look into his head, see what he looks like under the mask, find his name, everything.

But she finds that far less fun than simply _asking_.

And he’s _pulsing_ , Force coming out of him like a heartbeat. She’s never felt anything quite like it.

Snoke laughs, a shallow and airy sound and Zarra lets her eyes settle on him. “You’ve achieved **Balance**.”

He laughs louder, and Zarra wonders if he’ll suffocate on the dust in his lungs. The man remains kneeling, helmet still facing Snoke and the only reason Zarra knows he’s alive is because his fist curls and uncurls and she can barely hear his breathing.

She wonders how sore his knee is getting.

The helmet tips to her slightly, barely.

Snoke stands slowly, hunched over and steps forward, golden robes moving smoothly around his slippered feet. “I’ve sought you out, called you here for my apprentice, Kylo Ren.”

Zarra’s skin feels like it’s prickling up at that, a feeling close to _run_ and _fight_ crawling through her stomach.

“And that you’ve achieved Balance is even better!” He chuckles and motions to the man, Kylo Ren, to stand. He’s almost as tall as her; helmet coming to her nose.

Zarra pulls her attention from the man, when Snoke shuffles closer, stopping at the base of his chair platform and gestures with open hands to them both.

“My worthy apprentice, you are proving each day to be stronger than before.”

“Thank you, Master.”

Zarra wonders when Snoke will drop the reason why **she** is here.

“But I have taught you all I can. Zarralin, my dear daughter, will take over your training.”

Said woman blinks rapidly before walking forward, uncaring of how Snoke’s guards step forward when she gets too close. “I’m sorry what.”

She feels like throwing something. _Balance_ feeling rather thin and nervous right now. “You _called_ me from my calm and beautiful home,” she looks at Kylo and gestures at him with an arm. “To train **your** apprentice?”

Kylo, for all his silence until now, seems to burst to life at that, the Force seeming to spike out from him. “Master-“

Zarra barely has a second to brace with the Force before she and Kylo are lifted and almost thrown together. Snoke sneers, sitting, hand stretched out to them and Zarra growls when she struggles in his grasp.

“Enough! I have taught Ren all I can, you are to train him.” Snoke turns, sitting back down and waves a hand at them in clearly dismissive gesture. “Now go.”

Zarra feels like Kylo is a ball of spikes in the elevator.

She wants to start some conversation, bring up what just happened but the man seems to want to brood.

So she says the one thing that she always forgets to find out when she is staying somewhere new.

“I don’t know where my room is.”


End file.
